Get Emily

GET EMILY

By

Ross A Lloyd

Book Two of As Darkness Descends

A lone biker, a girl and the destiny of mankind

Extended Edition 2022

Prologue

The vision of an angel in white satin, Lana lying bloodied and alone amongst an assemblage of evil incarnate haunted Ryan for two nights and for most of the second day. He had not moved or slept for one moment during that time. He had just sat there, punishing himself constantly for letting her down. The sound of his name screamed out pleadingly in total fear by Lana, as she had faced her final moments alone and terrified, would indeed haunt Ryan throughout eternity. Ryan was no stranger to loss, but this was a loss that had torn his heart to shreds, and had left deep wounds that would never heal.

To make matters worse, there was to be precious little respite for Ryan…

Chapter 1

The Governor’s Daughter

There was indeed to be precious little respite for Ryan…

******

Governor Gentleman Jack Stevenson, as he was affectionately known, was a champion of women’s rights. That in itself made him somewhat of an oddity amongst his own political party colleagues. This was especially true as he was of the opinion that women should not lose their basic human rights just because they became pregnant, regardless of how that may have happened. Jack also constantly immersed himself in charity work supporting many worthwhile causes like women’s shelters, research for breast and ovarian cancer, and a number of others. All this endeared him greatly to a very broad spectrum of female voters, and that made him a very, very real threat to his opponents, particularly to the incumbent President and therefore to the President’s extremely influential foreign, as well as domestic backers. So popular in fact was Jack that he had even managed to win over many of the entertainment glitterazzi and Hollywood elite, which was no mean feat in the current political climate for a Governor from the conservative side of the fence.

Jack had lost his wife to leukaemia when their only child, Emily, was just nine years old. He had since raised Emily alone, and had quite understandably devoted all of his care and attention to her. Emily Stevenson now aged twenty, was a straight - A student studying sports science at the University of Florida. She loved her father dearly, but had not been the easiest child to bring up alone without a mother, often rebelling against her over-protective father’s, to her mind, unreasonable restrictions. Nevertheless, Emily had wanted for nothing, indeed being extremely spoiled.

Right now Emily, a gorgeous blonde haired brown eyed bombshell of a girl, was herself preparing to call her father from the college dorm to ask him something, something very important to her, and to her two closest friends and confidants.

******

At this point in time if an average mortal could have looked inside Ryan’s mind, they would have been stricken with terror finding a maelstrom of such intense fury and rage that bordered on infinite evil in the strictest sense. Finally it was hunger and thirst that snapped Ryan out of his melancholy delirium. He stood up, wincing at the pain emanating from the cramps in his legs and the many bruises he had sustained all over his body in the pitched battle two nights earlier. Instinctively he went into a routine of slow stretches to help alleviate the aches that dominated his entire body. While thus engaged he tried to focus his mind on what to do next. He figured that his boss at work would be wondering where in hell he was, so he thought it would be a good idea to phone work as soon as he could and then head on in there after cleaning himself up. He marvelled that he could concern himself with such mundane and seemingly trivial matters after all that had transpired. But still, life must go on he concluded subconsciously. To him that seemed far too callous and indeed ludicrous in the extreme considering what the world had lost, and more to the point, what he had lost personally on that hideous night.

Gathering himself together, he ambled over to the Blackbird and picked up his battered helmet from where he had dropped it the night he had arrived at the mountain. He picked a grasshopper and more than a few black ants out of the helmet before slowly putting it on and then looked around for his torn and blood stained black gloves. He spied them on the ground next to the bike on the upper side. After sliding them both on he realised that he really needed to relieve himself as he was now feeling intense discomfort. Feeling rather dopey and a little dazed he took off his helmet and gloves and walked more briskly this time to the nearest tree to take care of business.

With nature having taken its course, and finally clad again in gloves and helmet, Ryan threw his leg over his damaged machine and turned it on. The purr of the powerful four cylinder engine soothed Ryan a little. So, after kicking it into gear he let out the clutch and began the slow and careful ascent back up the way he had come, at least for the moment mercifully distracted by the need to concentrate on negotiating the difficult hill climb over clumpy grass, dirt and rocks.

******

‘But Daddy it’s only for two weeks and I’ll be with Katy and Sharon the whole time,’ Emily pleaded over the phone.

On the other end of the line in her home State Capital, Emily’s father Jack Stevenson was steadfastly holding his ground. ‘Look sweetheart I really don’t think you should go, not now. It’s not that safe over there anymore with constant protests and social unrest. Why don’t you go to Cancun, or how about Hawaii? You always liked Hawaii and it would be wonderful at this time of year!’

‘Yes, but the girls are going to Turkey Daddy. Katy has her heart set on it! There is so much history there and you always said I needed more exposure to culture didn’t you?’ Emily argued. ‘Besides, Sharon really needs a major distraction since she and Bobby broke up. We’d be going with a tour group anyway and spending most of the time at the resort in Antalya, which is always so full of other tourists to the point of almost being completely boring Daddy.’

‘That’s a two edged sword these days sweetheart. Tourist destinations have become a homing beacon for terrorists. Why don’t you at least take Brad with you if you won’t change your mind sweetheart,’ her dad suggested.

‘It’s meant to be a girl’s only trip Daddy. It would not be fair to the others to take my boyfriend along now would it? Besides Brad has a big game coming up then that he can’t miss,’ Emily replied. ‘We’ll only be gone for about three weeks and we’ll be back before you know it.’

‘OK I give in, but you ring me every day, and don’t wander off into any back streets. Stay with your tour group and stick to the popular tourist sites,’ Jack insisted. ‘The world is a bit of a crazy place at the moment sweetheart. Please be careful. I mean it Emily, be careful!’’

‘Yes Governor, we’ll be careful’ Emily said irreverently, then quickly added ‘I love you Daddy!’ very sweetly.

‘Love you too Princess,’ was Jack’s cautiously amused response. ‘Please, as I said, do be careful!’

Chapter 2

Friendly Intervention

Rolly, Smasher and Piker lobbed on Ryan’s doorstep unannounced on a Tuesday evening with a very serious proposition. Each of them had become justifiably concerned over Ryan’s state of mind since news of Lana Richards’ death broke over a month earlier. It had also affected each of them quite a lot as well in fact, as they had all got to know her and had quite naturally become very fond of the charming young superstar. The news of her death, splashed across the media had actually depressed them all, but none nearly as heavily as the usually affable Ryan who had since become totally withdrawn and almost reclusive.

Answering the door Ryan was not entirely surprised to see his old buddies. They were all pretty close and had grown quite attuned to each other over the years. Thus he knew that his recent morose demeanour would not escape their attention for long. An attempted intervention was therefore not unexpected.

‘G’day guys’ was Ryan’s laconic greeting for his close friends. ‘To what do I owe the honour of your presence?’ he added with an attempted grin.

Initially taken aback by Ryan’s physical appearance, with a new number one hair cut that exposed a few old battle scars, Rolly said ‘we’ve come to get you to rejoin the human race Mate. We’re all going on a road trip across the USA by bike and that includes you Slick!’ he answered excitedly invoking Ryan’s very old nickname in the process.

‘OK’ Ryan said, looking a little stunned and stepping aside to let his buddies troop on in. Closing the door behind the Smasher Ryan asked, ‘so how did this epiphany come about?’

‘Well,’ Piker began, ‘we all had a bit of a chat after you left the gym yesterday and came to the conclusion that you need a proper holiday Matey. You need to get away from it all for a while, but we’re coming with you so you don’t get too far away from it all, if that makes sense!’

‘Ah I see,’ Ryan said somewhat amused.

‘It’ll be great’ Smasher chimed in, ‘we’ll land in LA pick up some new bikes, then ride across the States and sell ’em to a bike shop in New York when we get there, or have them shipped back home. How does that sound?’

‘Expensive,’ was Ryan’s laconic response.

Piker asserted that ‘we wouldn’t lose much selling the bikes at the end of the trip. Essentially it’s unlikely to cost much more than it would to fly across the States. You are in serious need of a holiday Ryan old buddy, and this should be a real hoot and you know it!’

‘I can’t imagine that the boss will be too impressed with me taking leave again. At least not so soon after having just had leave after the recent comp in Sydney,’ Ryan mentioned half thinking out loud.

‘Don’t worry about it, you hardly ever take leave, and in fact I bet you still have some excess leave to get rid of don’t you!’ Piker asserted.

‘Well probably, but anyway, if we are going to ride all the way across the US perhaps I should do it on something that won’t torture my rear end eh!’ Ryan mused out loud. ‘So when exactly are you proposing we go?’ Ryan asked, knowing full well that the trip was a fait accompli he would not be able to decline.

‘Tomorrow week,’ was Smasher’s answer. ‘We have all the plans laid out so sit down and listen up.’

‘Yes sit down, right after you get us some glasses for my home brew,’ Piker ordered.

‘Go ahead and make yourself right at home, why don’t you’ Ryan replied with a laugh, as he veered off into the kitchen to comply with the Piker’s demand. ‘Be with you in a sec, and then you can all enlighten me’ he added.

Ryan did not need too much convincing during the apparent intervention conference convened by his old mates. The evident ease by which they had persuaded Ryan to agree to the trip however, had not been lost on all of his friends. As they departed the Smasher commented, ‘well that wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be, should be a good trip.’

Piker shook his head and interjected with ‘we’re not out of the woods yet, that was far too easy. I reckon Ryan’s looking for an out like he’s not anticipating returning.’

‘You’re ever the optimist eh Piker!’ Smasher said as they reached his car. ‘Lighten up. This will be just what he needs to distract him from his depressive thoughts. Once he’s away from here and everything that must certainly remind him of her, I’m sure he’ll start to pick up.’

‘What do you reckon Rolly?’ Piker asked.

‘Don’t know, maybe.’ The moustached biker said pensively.

‘Maybe what?’ Piker asked impatiently.

‘Maybe it’ll cheer him up a bit and maybe it won’t, but it’s certainly worth a shot,’ Rolly said as he squeezed into the back seat of Smasher’s Mazda. ‘Certainly worth a shot though’ he repeated to himself.

******

The girls were excited as they arrived at the airport. Brad was less enthused, partly because he was upset that his babe was going to miss his big game, but also because he was somewhat troubled by the idea of the girls travelling to Croatia and then on to Turkey alone.

‘Don’t be such a big baby Brad’ Emily said. ‘It’s Katy’s twenty first birthday and we’re going to make it special. Besides there will be so many people at the stadium to watch the game next weekend you would never have been able see me there anyway. I’ll watch the replay with you when I get home sweetie OK?’

‘That’s not the point,’ Brad replied as they walked through the terminal towards the check-in desk for American airlines, with him dutifully towing both Emily’s and Katy’s suit cases behind him. ‘I just don’t like the idea of where you are all going without someone to look after you.’

‘We’re all big girls now jock-boy,’ Katy interceded a little petulantly. ‘We don’t need a big boy scout to shepherd us around, though we do appreciate your well-meaning intentions’ she added, quickly noting Emily’s cautioning frown and shake of her head.